


Our Boys At War

by lnles



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Experimental Style, Gulf War, Homoeroticism, John Dos Passos-Lite, Korean War, M/M, Military, POV Second Person, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Probably my greatest crime against American Literature yet!, Stream of Consciousness, Veterans, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan, World War I, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 18:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30092961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lnles/pseuds/lnles
Summary: "whatpassesbetween our boys at war thebondsforgedin fire whatknightscalled comitatus"Archie Andrews. Eric Jackson. They meet in Basic. They go to war together. Something terrible happens. How many times has this happened before? How many times will it happen again?How do you love a man at war?
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Eric Jackson
Kudos: 3





	Our Boys At War

**Author's Note:**

> they won't tell us where archie and jackson went to war FINE i'll send them to EVERY war

_ Onthisthe fourth day of July intheyear ---- we the peopleofRiverdale resolve todedicate this monument to our sonsfatherbrothers and belovedfriendswho gave somuch someeventheir lives forthis great _

Down in the trenches, mud up to the knees, “gas, boys, gas”. The opposite of an ecstasy, but as fumbling as the first time with your best girl. 

Your best girl. 

“Go on, Archie. Show the fellas her pickcher.” A shove from Jackson, a push to make sure you share up, remind the boys why we fight.

Hand it over, watch’em whistle. Supposed to feel good, but you hardly remember who she was. She can’t exist in a world like this—mud and rot, all bloat and nightmares paddling past your bunk while you try to sleep at night.

There’s no sleep down in the trenches.

You said you loved her, your best girl, loved her more than anything else in this damn ugly world. Loved her like she was the only girl in the world.

Your best girl.

Jackson hands you back your best girl, and he smiles slyly while he does it.

You know why.

You love Jackson like a brother. How do you love a man at war?

How do you love a man like a brother?

There’s no sleep down in the trenches.

_ foryourservice our highesthonors you the heroes whosenamesshall live eternally outside the longshadowof death _

“Jackson!” The ship pitches to one side, you take one on the chin from a jutting bolt as you go down.

Come to and the smoking hole in the wall hasn’t gotten any smaller while you were out. Smoke grey and oily, shedding forth in sheets like snakeskin. And where is Jackson.

You can’t see him anywhere.

“Jackson! Eric!”

Clamber over the debris, the heat draped over your skin like a burial shroud or a bridal veil. They said the fight out Pacific way was heating up, and you’re not gonna doubt them again.

Hate to go to war, hate to come back. Last time on leave, the girls in the clubs, the girls on the street, they followed you with a cloying desire in their eyes. 

All you see in their mirrored eyes is the uniform. All you see in your morning mirror is the uniform.

How do you love a man at war?

“Eric!”

“Archie!” He is there, he is there, he is there just before you. This man, you love him like a brother. Pinned by twisted metal, leg at the jaunty angle of a jig.

Your best pal.

He can’t save himself, and maybe you can’t either. But you oughta try.

_ whatpassesbetween our boys at war thebondsforgedin fire whatknightscalled comitatus _

Your best pal. You and your best pal. Used to be you had another best pal, back when you had a home, a family, and a girl or two (or three).

Sometimes you and your best pal go out, there’s leave after all, and Korea’s got plenty of moviehouses and girls to take’em to. But you gotta seal the deal at the end of the night.

The end of the night’s the worst time for it. After the sun goes down, you don’t see people anymore. You see men you killed, boys some of them younger than you, flickering at the edge of your sight.

Where’d they go, where’re they going? 

Wherever it is, you’ll be there soon too.

Jackson’s there, though, and he notices how you’re doing, which isn’t very good, and he knows what you need, even when you don’t know yourself.

How does he love a man at war?

In the morning you see him painted in sunrise gold and you fear you have the hands of Midas, to turn all your best treasures into dead metal.

But he breathes.

_ inthe discharge oftheir duty servedloyally and withaneye towards the greatergood _

“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” Eric says it every day and you might strangle him one of these days because of it but until then you’ll always laugh.

“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” is right, you went to Florida when you were a kid and you thought that was bad, but ‘Nam’s a whole new type of bad. A whole new wet hot world of bad.

Sweat coats you and every guy in the unit, even after dark, can’t remember the last time you even wore a shirt.

Can’t remember what winter was like.

Sunset light off the rice paddies, bounces right back up and lays itself lightly to become a sheen across the sunburn-striped body of one Corporal Eric Jackson.

Your best pal. Your best pal, and he is. He knows what it means, what it means to be honorbound a man of your word.

Veronica might try to pay off the draft board for you. Betty might find you a college that’ll take you, help you defer ‘til the whole thing blows over. Jug might light out for Canada, might even offer to take you with him.

Despite all that you don’t wait for your number to come up, but volunteer. A man’s gotta make something of himself, and a man’s got to step up for his country.

Jackson knows that, he volunteered too.

Men’ve got to make something of themselves. When you get home, you’ll be somebody.

Right now you feel like nobody though not when he’s around.

You know how to love a man at war, but not much else anymore.

_ the pain wroughtuponusall by war inherharshness a lastingmark whichtransfiguresboys intomen thestepping stone to manhood _

Columns of fire, ancient gods returning to their homes on high. Pure destruction, the trace of life dragged into the sky where it burns for an eternity.

The flames from the oil wells, above you like skyscrapers.

And all you can think is “That’s my heart now.”

Where you used to be, there’s only fire. Fire gives birth to rage, and rage cuts down everything before you. You’re afraid to go home.

“Sarge?” Jackson touches your shoulder and you feel it even through your uniform, knowing it’s him because no else is familiar. No one touches you but Eric.

He is familiar. The best of them, your best pal you love him through this war.

_ notfor revenge not forpettyends but for ahigherpurpose the defenseof thisthegreatest  _

They struck first, they struck first. Nobody saw it coming, the day you don’t remember, but that everyone remembers. Even the color of the sky that day.

They struck first, you’re here because you want to strike last, because you’ve got all those friends back home. They can’t do this so you do this. For them.

For him also. Your best pal. You love him like a brother.

You met Jackson at basic, and he stuck by you ever since.

Quiet day for patrol, not a single cloud. The color of the sky that day.

When the seams burst on this the world that you know and everything trembles beneath you, all you can think is where is he. Where is he.

In the wreckage you find him, flames screaming so close by and closer still every second, you need to haul ass but it’s not easy.

They got his leg, shreds of meat all you can see now, but you don’t let him look. That can wait.

You take him, you run. Find cover, wait for evac. Hope he lives.

He lives.

He says it’s only because of you.

_ andfinally wethank you the heroeswho walkamongus bearingscars bothseen and unseenmakingthe hard choices thatwe cannot _

-How’s it going Sarge

-I’ve been thinking

-You’ve been thinking

-I’ve been thinking It’s hard It’s been hard

-It’s been hard

-It’s been hard but we’re both doing better now

-We are

-It’s been hard but we’re both doing better now

-We are

-There were times when I didn’t want to live

-There were times when I didn’t want to either

-I know

-I’m sorry

-You don’t have to be There were times when I didn’t want to live but now I do Every day I want to live more than the last

-I’m glad

-And every day I get closer to the end

-Don’t say that

-It’s true My dad

-Archie

-My dad died when he was not much older than we are now And he wanted to live I know he wanted to live every day

-Archie

-I want to live every day I want to live every day with you With you

-

-

-

-

-Okay

-Okay.

_ How do you love a man after war _

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far, you deserve a military pension. This is probably my most in-poor-taste work of all time and I am worryingly unashamed.
> 
> Also, I think this might be the only Archie/Jackson story on AO3 as of its date of publication? Can't believe this is what it feels like to blaze trails...


End file.
